The Huntress and the Skeleton
by Elliot Pole
Summary: Merida meets Peter Pan and they both wind up back in twentieth-century London. Merida will have to be trained to be a proper Starcatcher. The Skeleton wants her particularly. And Ombra is said to have a thing for red-heads. Will Merida survive all of htese antagonists? And what will her relationshp with Peter be at the the end?


**The Huntress and the Skeleton**

**Chapter One**

Merida was staring at the top of her canopy bed, when she heard a crash in the center of her room. She looked and saw a boy with red hair there, lying flat on his back. He wore odd green clothing and had a hat on that was also green.

He seemed a bit disoriented and was clutching his head.

Then he shook it and said, "That sure was some fall, wasn't it, Tink?"

Merida could've sworn she heard bell chimes, coming from the boy's hat. She had no idea what it meant.

She climbed out of bed and approached the boy. "Not to be rude or anything, but just who are you and what are you doing in my bedroom?"

"I am Peter Pan," the boy said. "And I'm here because I fell through a hole in the space-time continuum."

"What the ruddy Hortense is the space-time continuum?"

"Beats me," said Peter, getting up and brushing himself off. "I'm not a physics professor, am I?"

"I don't know what physics is or why you wouldn't be a professor of it," said Merida. "But you shouldn't be in here."

"Can't help it," Peter said. "When you fall through the space-time continuum, it is not your choice where you end up."

"Well, you're not welcome here, so you go right back where you belong."

"Actually, that's not quite an option," said Peter. "We can't go where we came from until Magill blows the Pokeflute."

"What's a Pokeflute?"

"Er, I'm not sure I'm supposed to say," Peter said, scratching his head.

"Okay, I'm calling my mother."

Merida strode to the door and thrust it open. "Mother, would you please come to mey room? Something strange is going on."

She heard her mother shuffling around in her own bedroom nearby. Then her mother opened the door and came over.

Merida heard the most beautiful instrumental music that had ever reached her ears and turned around, forgetting everything. And in an instant, she was gone.

Queen Elinor rushed to her daughter's bedroom. For a moment she thought Merida had just retreated into the room. But now she saw no princess in there, or anyone else either. There was nothing but a gaping hole in the ceiling, of an orange hue, which drew itself closed until it was no more.

Elinor knew enough about magic to suspect that her daughter had been sucked up through that hole. She did know where it led or where her daughter was now. All she could do was go report the doings to Fergus, who probably wouldn't comprehend the matter. He wasn't open to the idea of magic, even after Elinor's transformation into a bear and back.

She approached her daughter's bow, which had been refurbished after Elinor's time as a bear. Elinor had nearly destroyed it, hurting Merida. It had been that event which led Merida to find the witch who cast the spell.

And now Merida didn't have her bow to protect her, wherever she was. Elinor wished there was some way to send the bow to Merida. For now, all she could do was clutch it to her own chest, and weep.

Merida landed with a thud in a place lit by candles. She saw windows and a plant in a corner. There was a carpet under her, and a ceiling over her head. A huge man was playing a flute which had a round symbol on it, the top half red and the bottom half white. In the center of the symbol was another sphere of white, separated from the rest of it by a black outline.

And on the couch was a creature Merida would have hated to encounter if it were awake and in the outdoors. But inside was making her frantic with fear. For there lay a huge, snoring grizzly bear.

Merida jumped up and clasped the doorknob, but it wouldn't budge. She thrust her fist through a window. It cracked and she leaped through, not caring that the glass was cutting her. She would escape; she would not be forced to stay indoors with a bear. If the bear had been her mother or one of the triplets, that would be one thing. But not one she wasn't related to. She knew how vicious bears could be. Look at Mor'du. Sure, he had seemed repentant when his human spirit drifted off into the afterlife when Elinor as a bear killed him. And it had been he who made the will-o-wisps lead her to the witch's cottage. Inside the evil bear was a human with a heart, but his bearish instincts had made him wicked, beyond the wickedness he had when he was merely human. For he _had _wanted to rule over his kingdom after all, and thus asked the witch for help. Merida didn't want to tear apart her kingdom; she just didn't want to be forced to marry someone she didn't know. Though being here in this odd place—she heard a loud honking like that of a duck—but it came from the most monstrous thing she had ever laid eyes on, a beast emitting smoke at an alarming rate, though it didn't look as though it were on fire. It had swallowed some humans—you could see them through its eyes, which were on the side of its head. They didn't look digested yet, but they sure would be soon.

There were two black round things which seemed to propel it forward on the road. Yuck, the road seemed man-made, but why would humans build a road to make it easier for those monsters to travel upon?

She didn't have long to dwell on this, for two rough hands clasped her from behind. "Let me go!" she yelled.

"I can cause you more pain than you ever imagined could be felt by a human being," a raspy voice whispered in her ear. "You don't feel any pain now because I only have a hologram holding you at the moment. Your fear makes it easier to keep you in place. But know this: when we meet in real life, I will inflict the most unbearable pain upon you, and I will keep it going until you perish and cease the goal you try to attain with the Starcatchers.

"I do not know your whereabouts. I only know that you are out there, and you have been called to help them I can only guess that you will agree to do so. But if you do, one day we will meet, and you will regret ever agreeing to their plans. "

Merida felt the hold on her relax. She turned around and saw nothing but wisps of smoke. No one was there.

And then the door of the building she had just run out of burst open and the huge man squeezed out, followed by Peter.

"What do you think you're doing?" the man asked. "Making my inn look like Swiss cheese, I ask you."

"Can't you tell, Magill? Bears frighten her."

"Karl won't harm a hair on your frizzy head," Magill said. "You've got nothing to worry about."

"You're not thinking of making me go back in there, are you?" Merida asked, pointing to the building.

"That _was _the plan," said Magill.

"But if you don't want to go back inside," Peter said, "you don't have to."

"I don't even know who you people are," Merida said, backing away.

"I'm Peter. We met in your bedroom."

"But where am I? What am I doing here?"

"You are in London, England,"

"I've heard of London," said Merida. "And news reached us at Dun'broch just a few years ago about England becoming unified."

"England has been unified for nigh on a thousand years, our time," said the big man.

"A thousand years!" Merida exclaimed.

"That's right," said the huge man. "Where did you pick up this girl, Peter? She seems to be from the tenth century."

"I don't know where I encountered her," Peter said. "I just did what you told me and let the time-space continuum do its thing."

"Dun'broch, you say?" the big man asked, stroking his beard. "That'd be Scotland, wouldn't it?"

"It is my kingdom in Scotland," Merida said. "I am a princess there. And I demand you return me at once." She took on a regal stance as she said this.

"You know, you match Peter in so many ways," said the huge man. "Red hair, green clothing, resilient, and both headstrong. Though I suppose you are a few years older than he…"

"I am having nothing to do with this operation. You have kidnapped me, taken me away from my home. I do not want to be a stranger in a strange land. I want to drink from the firefalls again and ride my horse Angus and shoot arrows with my bow! Home is where I need to be. Not here."

"What are firefalls?" the huge man asked.

"Waterfalls that have been altered a blazing orange by the stuff that falls from the sky and gives them their brilliant glow."

The huge man's mouth gaped open. "Peter, I think you found the original Starcatcher."

"Starcatcher? That's that word again. What does it mean?"

"Peter, you told her already? Didn't think you were in her time long enough to."

"It wasn't he who told me," Merida said. "It was—"

"It was Tink," Peter said.

"Tinkerbell?" asked the huge man. "You can understand Tinkerbell? Oh, of course you can. If you are the original Starcatcher, as I have no doubt of now, you _would _know what Tinkerbell says."

Merida didn't know who or what Tinkerbell was. Then she heard the chiming from within Peter's hat.

_Better be like brother and sister_, she heard the bells chatter. _If you two really are so alike._

How come she hadn't noticed it before? She heard the chimes but not the words. Now the words were as clear to her as if she had just learned a new language and was understanding it being spoken by others just as well as if it had been her native language.

"What is making that noise? And why is it talking about siblings?"

"It's Tinkerbell," Peter said. "She wants us to remain like kin rather than…you know." He was blushing red to the roots of his hair. He pulled off his hat and showed Merida that there was a pixie in it.

"She's cute," Merida said.

The pixie folded her arms, exhibited her back to Merida, and chimed,, _But you aren't_.

"Now Tink, that wasn't very nice."

The pixie rose into the air and fluttered off to a tree, hiding in a hollow knoll, only the glow she emitted remaining in sight.

"Peter, I just had the strangest idea," the huge man said. "Perhaps we are the ones who are meant to train the original Starcatcher."

"But that's crazy. Starcatchers have been doing their thing for a thousand years. Well, their practice has gone down in the last couple of decades, but we can't begin something that has already gone through its cycle."

"Peter, sometimes you sound like a grown-up."

"I just listen to Ted a bit, that's all," Peter said.

"Will you please explain what's going on here?" Merida asked.

"Certainly," said the huge man. "You are the original Starcatcher and we must train you so that all the Starcatchers after you will learn to do their duties and protect the starstuff from the Others, and eventually, Ombra."

"But we called her here so that she could help _us_," Peter said. "Not so that we could help _her_."

"I think we've got to work it both ways," said the huge man. "It seems only fair."

"Tell me what you two are talking about this instant, or I'll have you thrown into the dungeon."

"I really never thought the original Starcatcher was a princess. It's a pretty interesting prospect, wouldn't you say?"

The huge man winked at Peter.

"If you won't tell me anything, I'll just set off on my own," Merida said. She stepped out into the road. Another creature like the one before narrowly avoided hitting her. She was glad; she didn't want to get swallowed.

But when another came roaring at her, she did an about face and rushed into the building. Bear or no bear, the indoors could be borne better than those smoking, roaring, black-liquid dropping monsters.

The huge man and Peter entered after her. They shut the door. She took a peek at the couch and saw that the bear was still snoring.

"I think we'd better tell her about the Starcatchers," Peter said.

"Sure," said the huge man. "But first, introductions."

He strode over to Merida. "I am Magill, owner and proprietor of this here inn. The bear on the couch is Karl, and of course, you've already met Peter Pan."

"I am Princess Merida, daughter of King Fergus and Queen Elinor of DunBroch. And I wish to go home immediately."

"Let us relate to you the story of the Starcatchers first, and then we'll take your request into account."

And so Magill and Peter took turns relating the story. It was a tale of treasure chests and people trying to steal bits of stars that fell into the Earth's atmosphere, which gave humans powers they didn't naturally have. It also was strong enough to kill if one touched it with their bare hands. It turned fish into mermaids with sharp teeth, it made young boys stay the same age forever and never die, it was hunted by creatures that stole shadows and a woman with ruby eyes that could persuade people to do anything, and a Skeleton who was practically invincible.

"And Peter can fly," Magill added at the end.

Merida gave them both a blank stare. "Humans can't fly."

Just then, Peter rose into the air.

"B-but how?"

"The starstuff might've killed me," Peter said. "But it didn't. I was exposed to it. I have been the same age for twenty years now."

"Just how old are you?"

"Thirteen, I'd say. I wouldn't exactly know. The orphanage didn't keep records of my birth year, so I can't determine quite when I was born."

"What's an orphanage?"

"It's a building where children who have no parents go."

"Don't people in the kingdom or village raise children who have lost parents due to disease or fire or death by wild animals?"

"We don't have to worry about wild animals too much these days," Magill said. Merida gave him a look, then glanced over at the couch, where Karl continued to snore.

"Oh yes. Him and the wolves. But they are on our side; you don't have wo worry about _them_."

Merida didn't feel she could trust them on this, but the bear had to be safer than the people-swallowers outside. Especially when it was sleeping.

But she had other matters on her mind.

"That was a fun tale, but I'd really like to go home now."

"You sure you don't want to stay and learn how to be a Starcatcher?" Magill asked.

"Not really, no."

"It doesn't suit me to just send you back. But if you insist."

"I insist," Merida said.

"Very well, then," said Magill, sounding defeated. He took a seat in an armchair, lifted the flute with the odd symbol, and started playing, strumming his fingers along the fipples.

Merida felt her body tear apart as if it were a bunch of small particles struggling to separate from one another but knowing that it could not be, they must not. It was wrong to ask them to do this. Don't let it happen; don't let that noise tear, don't let it rip.

She screamed and rushed forward, knocking the flute out of Magill's hands.

"Merida, what's wrong?" he asked.

"I felt something, within. Like I was about to be rent in two, or two million. I can't abide it!"

"It's the banishing sequence," Peter said. "I felt it too, when I was sent to your time."

"How come I didn't feel it when I came here?"

"Because it only affects you when you are _leaving _the place where the source of the time-space travel is," said Peter. "Not when you're going toward it."

"Let us try again," Merida said.

"Are you sure?" asked Magill.

"Very," said Merida. "I must go home."

Magill took up the flute and started playing. But this time, Merida's insides were screaming in agony, and it felt as though each of her individual hairs were urging her to protect them, her precious babies, they had not gone all in disarray for nothing. They thought she cared about them, cared for them. Did she not want to show some strands of her hair at the Games ceremony when her mate would have been chosen? She didn't like her hair hidden. So why was she letting them go to pieces _now_? It was wrong, it was unjust, it was downright cruel. _Fight now or you will lose us_, they screamed.

Merida fought. And this time she snatched the flute from Magill's hands and threw it against the wall. When it cluttered to the floor, she saw that the symbol on it had cracked in two.

"Well, I can't send you back now. That's for sure."

"At the moment, I just want bed,' Merida said.

"You've stopped at the right place, then," said Magill. "Peter, take her to Room 707."

Peter led Merida down a hallway, a candle in his hand. "Magill never gets mad about anything. Except where our enemies are concerned. You don't have to worry about him getting upset over you breaking the Pokeflute."

"Good, because I couldn't control it. I was frightened."

'You're not easily frightened, are you?"

"No, but tonight I'm not doing a good job of showing that."

"After a good night's rest, I'm sure you'll be back to your usual self."

They arrived at a room with the numerals 707 on the door. Peter opened the door and handed Merida a key. "This lets you in. Be sure to take it with you always when you leave."

"What about candles?"

"You can have this one," he said, handing her his candle.

"But you don't have one now."

"Tink will come when I call, and she'll provide the light."

"Thanks, Peter. Even though you did bring me to a different time and kingdom from my own, I'll try not to hate you."

"That means a lot to me," Peter said. He shut the door behind him and Merida examined the room. It didn't have a canopy bed. It was very bare. There were sheets and whatnot, and a curtain at the window. There was also a table by the bed, and a closet that wasn't a closet. She was certain it had a name that she didn't know about because it didn't exist in her time.

She lay down on the bed, ready to tumble into sleep. Maybe she already was sleeping and would wake up in her canopy, and call to her mother when she woke up. They'd hug and she'd tell her mother about this crazy dream she'd had, in which she had gone to the future and met a boy who could fly…

Yawning and rolling over, she wondered about the voice she had heard. It must have been a dream-within-a-dream. She had had those before.

Now she dreamt that she was swimming in a bowl of porridge, and her mother had raised a spoon to lift some of the porridge to her lips, then saw her daughter in it. "Merida, what are you doing there?"

"Trying to learn to swim," Merida said in her dream.

"Princesses do not need to swim," said Elinor. "Especially in porridge."

Elinor dumped her bowl out and Merida fell onto the table, full-size. She turned to hug her mother, only to see instead a grotesque face, a skeleton smiling wickedly, The skeleton grabbed her and she felt such horrible pain that she imagined getting cut by a sword would feel like a mere scratch compared to.

She thrashed about in her sleep and tumbled from the bed, hitting the hard floor. For a moment, she thought she was back in her bedroom. Then her eyes shut and she returned to sleep, this time dreaming of Angus and will-o-wisps and other pleasant things.


End file.
